1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to aromatic woods treated to inhibit the process of their natural combustion so as to be adapted to be used along with fuels for smoking meats and the like, and to methods of forming such articles.
2. Prior Art
For centuries meats, fish and like foods have been cooked by burning hickory and other aromatic woods such as maple, birch, ash, oak, apple wood, willow, sassafras, and certain pines. During their combustion, which generates heat to cook the foods, these woods also generate aromatic smoke and vapors which impart flavor to the foods, color them, and act to preserve them.
A problem associated with the use of wood and particularly aromatic woods, as cooking fuels is that their combustion rates are generally very high and they initially produce relatively large quantities of smoke and vapor and subsequently a great deal of flame as they combust. Accordingly, if meat or the like is barbecued in a closed system using this aromatic wood as a fuel, the excessive smoke and vapor overcures the meat long before it is cooked. If an open fire is used most of the smoke is lost and flaming predominates. If aromatic woods are used along with other slower burning non-flaming fuels such as charcoal, the rapid combustion of the aromatic woods causes initially excessive rates of smoke and vapor production followed by flaming of the wood and then the rate sharply decreases as the aromatic woods burn out, usually long before the food is cooked.
For these reasons and the relatively high cost of the aromatic woods, cooking and smoking processes have often employed relatively small quantities of aromatic woods in association with other fuels more suited to cooking such as charcoal briquettes or in similar association with wood embers. The major portion of the cooking heat may thus be derived from these other fuel substances while the aromatic woods produce relatively smaller quantities of heat and hopefully sufficient smoke and vapor to impart the desired treatment to the food. However, this approach does not entirely solve the problem, since the aromatic woods, while first emitting relatively large quantities of aromatic smoke and vapors, will subsequently flame up, and then rapidly burn out, long before the cooking has been completed. This is a considerably different situation from the ideal, in which a controlled and uniform production of a relatively small quantity of aromatic vapors and smoke over substantially the entire cooking interval is produced by the combustion of the aromatic wood. Prior art attempts to solve this problem have included the approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,341,377, in which a form of briquette consisting of comminuted charcoal and aromatic woods along with binding agents chosen to avoid excessive impeding of the combustion of the briquettes. The aromatic wood contents of these briquettes are chosen to produce the desired smoke and vapor during their combustion and, in theory, to match the combustion of the aromatic wood to that of the charcoal. However, the intimate admixture of charcoal and aromatic wood particles creates certain difficulties and, in any event, will not produce the ideal situation described above. That is, the relatively high temperatures to which the wood particles are subjected will produce flaming of the aromatic smoke and vapors, reducing the quantity available for flavoring the food. In addition, the proportion of aromatic wood and charcoal is fixed, which precludes any variation in the relative amount of smoking produced, which is a considerable disadvantage, since tastes vary widely among individuals as to the extent of "smokey" taste desirable. Finally, the use of binders having flame retardant characteristics must be used very sparingly, since the ignitability and combustibility will be adversely affected, creating a fuel that is difficult to light and to keep lit.
Another approach, described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,916,365, involves the coating of blocks of aromatic woods to inhibit the initial burning of the wood, but this process also produces flaming and burning of the aromatic vapors and smoke, which flaming is highly undesirable, since the cooking fire is excessively hot until such flame cessates. Also, the aromatic wood is relied on to produce the cooking heat which is uneconomic in the use of the aromatic woods, and in addition, notwithstanding the treatment thereof, the flaming resulting renders the wood undesirable as a cooking fuel.
Another aromatic wood product designed to meet the needs of the home barbecuing market consists of packaged sections of aromatic wood. The instructions accompanying these packages advise the users to soak the wood in water before use and then to use the wood along with charcoal briquettes or other fuels. The soaking is intended to decrease the natural combustion rate of the aromatic wood to prolong its smoke production to match the cooking time of the meat. Of course, in practice, soaking the wood results in a highly non-uniform smoke production rate: first, the excess moisture is steamed off with little production of natural aromatic wood smoke or vapor, then the smoke or vapor is produced at a very high rate as the aromatic burns at its natural high rate and flaming often occurs. Moreover, the soaking is an annoying and time consuming step. Wet wood is only added after the fuel source is lit.